▪ I. sparrer1 colloq.
(ˈspɑːrə(r))
[f. spar v.2]
One who spars or boxes. Also fig.
| 1814 Sporting Mag. XLIV. 92 The parties were rival sparrers in the North. 1818 Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXIII. 2 The ‘Courier’ and..the ‘Morning Chronicle’, those sparrers in double-padded gloves. 1862 Thackeray Philip vii, Cinqbars was a pretty sparrer—but no stamina. 1886 B. Shaw Cash. Byron's Prof. Prol. iii, He says you're only a sparrer, and that you'd fall down with fright if you was put into a twenty-four foot ring. |
▪ II. sparrer2
(ˈspærə(r))
repr. dial. pronunc. of sparrow; also as first element of sparrow-grass.
| 1884 [see Negro 1 d]. 1935 in Z. N. Hurston Mules & Men i. vii. 153 He seen a sparrer sittin' on a dead limb of a tree. 1961 John o' London's 19 Oct. 447/1 Cloak-and-dagger intellectuals, or game little cockney sparrers. 1970 N. Streatfeild Thursday's Child xxiii. 156 That Ebeneezer we 'ave to 'elp..'asn't got no more brains than a sparrer. 1979 R. Cassilis Arrow of God iii. ix. 78 A dark-skinned..dhoti-clad cockney sparrer. |